The sexual and reproductive health of younger adolescents

The sexual and reproductive health of younger adolescents
studies are of 15–19 year olds, data from DHSs
and other sources permit some descriptions of the
situation of younger adolescents – often drawn
from 15–19 year olds reporting on their own
behaviour before they turned 15 years.
Gendered patterns of sexual initiation (which are
not mutually exclusive and may coexist within
countries and even within communities) include
the following:
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single standards of behaviour in prohibitive
sexual cultures in which neither boys nor girls
have non-marital sex before the age of 15
years, although some sex differences in sexual
initiation may appear in later adolescence (e.g.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the
Philippines; see comparisons of married females
and females who have had intercourse by the
ages of 15 and 18 years, in Appendix Table 2);
single standards of behaviour in somewhat
permissive sexual cultures that tolerate (or are
at least forced to accept) early non-marital sex
for both girls and boys (e.g. 13–15-year-old
students in the United Republic of Tanzania
and northern and central Ghana, as shown in
Appendix Table 3);
double standards in which boys are considerably
more likely than girls to have non-marital sex at
the age of 14 years or younger, the differences
between them ranging from slight to substantial
(e.g. in the Latin American and Caribbean
countries in Appendix Table 2, excluding girls
who are already married or cohabiting, and
most student surveys in Appendix Table 3).
One also finds:
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gendered double standards of desirable age
differences between partners, in which the
average age gap ranges from 2 to 3 years or less
in peer-oriented dating cultures, to 8 to 10 years
or more where adult men seek out young
girls as sexual partners or where the marriage
market is organized around older (sometimes
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polygamous) men marrying young brides
(Glynn et al. 2001; Luke 2003Clark 2004; Khan
and Mishra 2008:72;);
cultures of sexual violence as reflected in high
levels of unwanted or coerced sex and abuse
reported by girls and women in some countries,
both at the occurrence of first non-marital or
marital intercourse (sexual initiation before
15 years is most likely to be coerced, e.g. 43%
in the United Republic of Tanzania, 41% in
Peru, 36% in Bangladesh and 20% in Thailand)
(WHO 2005:11–15; see also Ajuwon et al. 2001;
Jejeebhoy and Bott 2003; Erulkar 2004; Koenig
et al. 2004; Jejeebhoy et al. 2005);
subcultures in which boys are victims as well
as perpetrators of sexual coercion and abuse,
particularly those living on the streets or in
conflict situations, who are raped by other boys
or men and who may in turn coerce others,
including their female partners (Ramakrishna
et al. 2003; Rajani and Kudrati 1996; Population
Council 2004a; Jewkes et al. 2006).
The sex–gender rules are also played out in boys’
and girls’ partners and motives for sexual initiation.
Apart from the forced or unwanted sexual initiation
of young girls in arranged marriages or non-marital
situations,
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girls are more likely than boys to say they were
motivated to have sex by love, a desire to
“deepen the relationship”, a sense of obligation
to the boy, or (in some settings) by promises of
gifts or money (mostly from older boys or men),
whereas boys more often mention curiosity,
physical gratification, or “friends are doing it”
as their primary motive (Matasha et al. 1998;
Eggleston et al. 1999; Luke 2003; Kaufman and
Stavrou 2004);
a girl’s first partner is more likely to be a
boyfriend or someone she hopes to marry,
whereas boys’ first partners are more often
friends, acquaintances, or (in some settings)
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